Rugby Championship 2021: Argentina skipper Julián Montoya takes sneaky swipe at Australia

After the Pumas’ last game of the Rugby Championship, the side’s skipper appeared to take a swipe at the host nation.

Montoya fired a cheeky shot at Australia. Image: Getty/Stan Sport

Argentina skipper Julián Montoya has taken a subtle swipe at Australia following his side’s loss in its final game of the Rugby Championship.

Despite a strong second-half showing in Saturday’s match against the Wallabies, the Pumas couldn’t put it together for 80 minutes. Their 32-17 loss has ensured they will finish the tournament without tasting victory.

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It capped off a brutal few weeks for the Argentines — they’ve been on the road since June and have had to contend with drama off the field during their time in Australia.

Six Pumas were rubbed out of the final game of the Rugby Championship after crossing the New South Wales border ahead of Saturday’s game. The six, which included former captain Pablo Matera, were stopped as they attempted to re-enter Queensland on Wednesday night.

Prior to that, Argentina coach Mario Ledesma hit out at the Rugby Championship’s organisers after Montoya was left out of a publicity photo shoot.

Scheduling difficulties meant Montoya did not appear in promotional shots for the tournament’s Townsville games, which featured the skippers of the three other sides contesting the Rugby Championship: Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

“The boys and the staff, we felt really disrespected,” Ledesma said after last week’s loss to the Wallabies.

“We’re not asking for much. We are always travelling and we never complain, but we feel sometimes we are getting treated with disrespect.

“We just continue and cop it on the chin. It hurts, it hurts a lot.”

SANZAAR and Rugby Australia later apologised for the misstep but after Saturday’s game, Montoya took what appeared to be a swipe of his own.

“I think Australia is a really nice country and they treat us … well. Sometimes,” he said.

Montoya has represented Argentina at international level since 2014. (Photo by Patrick Hamilton/AFP)

Despite a tough few weeks, Montoya said his troops were grateful to have been a part of the Rugby Championship. His only hope is that the Argentines may be able to host their rivals in future — the Pumas haven’t played a home Test in over two years.

“We love playing for our country so if we need to do this … we do it,” he said.

“It would be nice if we could play at home after two years without our families in the crowd.

“But that’s not an excuse, we just love being part of this team.

“We just need to keep on working and trying to be better.”

Montoya paid tribute to his teammates and vowed to continue working on starting games strongly.

“I’m very proud of the team. After two months away from home,” he said.

“A lot of them didn’t play a minute and they trained as hard as the guys that played, so thanks to them.

“We need to improve our first halves. We give away too many points and against these types of teams, it’s very difficult to come back.

“No excuses, no shortcuts. Just work hard. We need to learn from this tournament.”

The Wallabies defeated Argentina 32-17 at Cbus Super Stadium on Saturday night. (Photo by Albert Perez/Getty Images)

For their part, the Wallabies continued their winning ways on Saturday night, thanks largely to an excellent individual performance from Andrew Kellaway.

For the first time in his Test career, Kellaway started on the left wing, but was later shifted to fullback.

The 25-year-old finished the game with three of the Wallabies’ five tries to his name.